Tuesday, March 15, 2016
It was during the train ride home, I had stumbled upon an article during lunch which piqued my attention enough to save it for later reading. The article was about how selfies should not be taken in Auschwitz. Not very well written, just a writer interviewing a war survivor on his thoughts on how a rather frivolous act in taking selfies is inappropriate for the depth of solemnity accorded to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The article was bland, but Auschwitz once again drew me in, so I keyed Birkenau into google and started reading the Wikipedia article on it.
It's been about 4 hours since then, and I had spent about a quarter of that time reading up on the horrors and atrocities of the camp. I had been to Dachau and experienced first-hand the haunting silence and solemnity of that concentration camp, but perhaps Dachau would even be incomparable to Auschwitz. This time round, the horrors of Auschwitz seared my imagination. What utterly horrifying acts could a man do to another, and yet still live with a conscience? The depth of depravity of man knows no bounds. How dark can sin be? Wow. The thought of such acts as reality is uncomfortable, unsettling, especially knowing how man can once again be capable of such acts.
And here I am, sitting down on my chair and writing my thoughts down in the comfort of my home, where the outside carries a quiet peace and the night crawls on, save for the occasional hum of a passing vehicle's engine. It's as if things were incongruent. What can I do now, but ponder on the blessed peace that God has given to me in this day and age? Born at another time and place, I might have been going through the horrors of a war, struggling and lying my way to survive in filth-infested slums, perhaps living in a conflict-ravaged region where personal freedom is curtailed. Tonight is a night of pondering on the blessed situation I am in, and truly, in that knowledge of God, to know that all these evil will be no more one day. For now, however, there is much more that must be done, in prayer and in action, to save more souls. || posted by Kuan Hui
It's been about 4 hours since then, and I had spent about a quarter of that time reading up on the horrors and atrocities of the camp. I had been to Dachau and experienced first-hand the haunting silence and solemnity of that concentration camp, but perhaps Dachau would even be incomparable to Auschwitz. This time round, the horrors of Auschwitz seared my imagination. What utterly horrifying acts could a man do to another, and yet still live with a conscience? The depth of depravity of man knows no bounds. How dark can sin be? Wow. The thought of such acts as reality is uncomfortable, unsettling, especially knowing how man can once again be capable of such acts.
And here I am, sitting down on my chair and writing my thoughts down in the comfort of my home, where the outside carries a quiet peace and the night crawls on, save for the occasional hum of a passing vehicle's engine. It's as if things were incongruent. What can I do now, but ponder on the blessed peace that God has given to me in this day and age? Born at another time and place, I might have been going through the horrors of a war, struggling and lying my way to survive in filth-infested slums, perhaps living in a conflict-ravaged region where personal freedom is curtailed. Tonight is a night of pondering on the blessed situation I am in, and truly, in that knowledge of God, to know that all these evil will be no more one day. For now, however, there is much more that must be done, in prayer and in action, to save more souls. || posted by Kuan Hui
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